Best Website Builders Reviewed

I’ve used website builders in the past, and I’ll be honest… it wasn’t the most pleasurable experience.

Programmers who know HTML, CSS, and other languages are a great resource, but for the rest of us, website builders are an excellent alternative.

My experience with HTML and CSS helps, but I’m not an expert in these programming languages. I know bloggers who started with website builders and found a lot of success. You can easily find success as well with these tools.

The Gigantic Difference in Cost Between
Website Builders and Developers

You want start making a website, so you explore some articles that try to explain complicated things like coding, development, stylesheets, and plenty of other scary looking terms.

You can find WordPress Guides online. However, many of these guides become quite complicated. What’s a beginner to do? Perhaps you can pay someone to do it for you.

It can’t be that expensive, right?

Brace yourselves:

Looking at Quora to see what the current prices were for someone who wanted to hire a web developer/designer, this is what I got:

Custom design and architecture: $2,500 – $10,000+

Shopping cart integration and programming: $200 – $15,000

Website content creation: $50-$200 per page, or hourly rates

Website managed services: $75-$150 per month

Hiring a developer alone: $2,000-$5,000

What it comes down to, is about $2,000, minimum, for a basic website that gives you a static page and answers a few questions for your customers. Advanced websites and fully custom websites for big businesses rack up costs of $30,000 or more!

Paying someone to do everything doesn’t work unless you manage to secure a small loan of a million dollars. You have two other choices:

1. Make a website with WordPress

2. Use a Website Builder

We’ve covered the former option pretty thoroughly on here, so this time we’re going to talk about website builders. Now, in terms of cost, I think you will like this a lot better:

Free!

Between $4 and $18 per month

That’s it! Way less expensive, and you get the tools you need to make an attractive and fully functional website, blog, store, or anything in between.

Who Are Website Builders For?

No Experience? No Problem! Website builders use drag-and-drop interfaces that make it easy for anyone to make a website from scratch.

Starting a Small Business? You can get your store and your website up in mere hours.

Fancy yourself the next Stephen King? Writers can make incredible professional blogs and portfolios using today’s website builders.

Artists, you’re welcome too. Portfolios and galleries are a snap with website builders.

Want everything in one convenient package? Website builders offer domains, hosting, and the tools to get your website up and running in one place.

Website Builder Comparison Infographic:
Who Stacks Up as the Best?

Best Website Builders in 2017 and Beyond

Here they are, in no particular order, my top picks for website builders in 2017, and well into the future. Enjoy!

SiteBuilder comes out of the gate strong with a free domain name, support for templates, a free email address, eCommerce support, and SEO tools. They have a starter package with simple features that are totally free.

When you want to get serious, you can choose between four different plans that all cost less than $12 a month.

What I loved about SiteBuilder

Free domain and email account? Yes, please!

Over 1,200 templates to choose from.

Modern design on the templates, and a simple/clean UI

Starting at $59.88 for an entire year.

Save history feature and build a blog feature are very welcome

What Improvements
SiteBuilder Could Make

eCommerce stores require a business account, which is more expensive

Activation can take a few hours when all you wanna do is get started.

My verdict: Give this one a shot, it’s a great setup with solid pricing and options.

Wix is the website builder most people will recognize immediately. It has a lot of advertising behind it, and it’s known for making beautifully designed websites. Everything from drag-and-drop interfaces, to designer crafted templates and tons of other features, are all at your disposal.

It truly is an all-in-one solution for your website creation needs.

What I Loved about Wix

Wix has 300+ templates that are all gorgeous and hand-crafted for professional and modern design

The website builder is really flexible. There are lots of customization options

Design changes are visual-based. This means you can simply point and click on something to modify or change it

Sign-up and activation are instantaneous

The cheapest ad-free option is $9.25 per month, which is reasonable.

Great loading speeds and very little downtime

What Improvements
Wix Could Make

Email accounts cost $5 per

eCommerce users will need the higher package that costs $17/month

My Verdict: I love Wix because it welcomes beginners with open arms. The cost of email, and some of the additional paid options got a little annoying, but it didn’t detract from an otherwise stellar experience.

Squarespace was started back in 2004 in founder Anthony’s dorm room at the University of Maryland. And, now I feel old. Today, the company has over 600 people on its team and have helped millions of websites launch into the World Wide Web.

Today it helps creative people design beautiful websites for their stores or portfolios.

What I Loved About Squarespace

There are over 40 modern templates that are each extremely high quality

Free domain and privacy protection

Blogs, websites, or eCommerce sites are all welcome

Solid loading speeds and uptime

Great for image-heavy sites like art or photography portfolios

What Improvements
Squarespace Could Make

A fully upgraded site runs about $18/month which is on the higher end of the spectrum

There’s a small learning curve for beginners, and it’s really designed for image-heavy sites

Each email account is $5/month extra

My Verdict: If you’re an artist or photographer, this is a great fit.

BoldGrid

BoldGrid offers a solid website builder with lots of flexibility and good pricing. It has some downsides, but it’s also a great way for WordPress beginners to understand the platform since it’s built on WordPress.

What I Loved About BoldGrid

Runs on top of WordPress, which is great for people looking to transition to the platform eventually

Flexibility for any kinds of site

Free domain, unlimited email, and eCommerce tools

$4.17/month is a great price

What Improvements
BoldGrid Could Make

Sign up and activation was about 2 hours altogether

A bit of a learning curve for beginners, but it’s worth it

My Verdict: This is a great place to learn more about WordPress, but also get a website builder’s tools and functionality.

Weebly is a really popular option for website builders, but it can be lacking depending on your needs. On the one hand, it’s very intuitive, but that simplicity also comes at the price of complexity. Let’s take a look.

What I Loved About Weebly

They offer free email

Instant activation upon sign up

Drag-and-drop customization options and pre-built features

$12/month isn’t too bad

What Improvements
Weebly Could Make

Roughly 80 themes to choose from, but none of them really pop like other options

An eCommerce store with over 25 products costs $23/month

The uptime is solid, but it can sometimes report fake or error-filled site statistics

My Verdict: It’s solid, but ultimately Weebly doesn’t do as much as other choices

Jimdo

Jimdo does its job pretty well, but it’s overshadowed by the competition in a number of regards. For starters, the theme selection is a little small. There may be better options out there for your site.

What I loved about Jimdo

Pricing isn’t too bad at $7.50/month

Less than 30-minutes to get a website up and running

Best performance in terms of uptime and speed

What Improvements
Jimdo Could Make

Jimdo only has 17 themes included.

Changing color and adding text or images is fine, but anything else is difficult because of the strict templates

It’s $20/month for unlimited eCommerce products

My Verdict: Jimdo is fully functional, but doesn’t do a lot to differentiate itself from the competition

GoDaddy is the largest reseller of domains out there. It would make sense that their site builder adds up, right? It’s not quite that cut and dry. Great drag-and-drop interfaces are marred by poor choices and lots of upsells.

What I Loved About GoDaddy

The website builder is very simple and easy to use

Creating a custom site and adding content is pretty easy

The starting price isn’t bad

What Improvements
GoDaddy Could Make

If you want anything beyond the basics, prepare to pay more

Customer support is really hit or miss

My verdict: GoDaddy is great for buying a domain. As for their website builder, you can find a better website builders elsewhere.

Adobe Muse

Adobe Muse is for the graphic designers out there. Its main draw is the ability to draw elements directly into the program.

What I loved about Adobe Muse

Starts at $14.99/month (not bad, given the features)

Premium web fonts available

Supports blogs, storefronts, and plenty of other site features

Templates available

Written and video tutorials

The ability to draw directly into the program for artists/designers

What Improvements
Adobe Muse Could Make

The UI can be complex for anyone who isn’t a graphic designer

A little high on pricing in comparison other options

My verdict: I like Adobe Muse for its graphic design features, but I don’t think it’s a good fit for beginners.

1 & 1

1 & 1 offers some pretty awesome features and a solid price point. It’s not anything we haven’t seen elsewhere, but it does have some really good options for new bloggers or website owners.

What I loved about 1 & 1

Starts at $6.99/month

Domain and 200 email accounts included

Web apps, support for third-party tools

Free PayPal mini store

Editable SEO tools

Analytics included

Access to HTML and CSS for advanced users

What Improvements
1 & 1 Could Make

More options for customization would go a long way towards making this one stand out

My verdict: you could do a lot worse than this, but you could also do better. Try all the options first.

Vistaprint Web Builder

Vistaprint has a lot of cool services, and now we can add website builder to that list. Does it manage to stand out? Well, yes and no.

What I loved about Vistaprint Web Builder

Responsive design

Form builder included

What Improvements
Vistaprint Could Make

Block-based web builder doesn’t have a ton of options

No themes, you have to use color settings and custom designs

My verdict: There’s just not enough going on here to make it stand out. Pass.

Strikingly

Strikingly offers the promise of an easy website builder and on that it delivers. Does it offer anything else? Let’s find out.

What I loved about Strikingly

Free option, and starting price at $8/month

eCommerce tools included

Free domain

24/7 support

What Improvements
Strikingly Could Make

Unlimited bandwidth and ad-free options are only included with the pro plan

Used for building one-page websites

Switching themes resets the entire site

My verdict: Overall, nice, but only if you’re interested in the Pro plan.

Shopify

Shopify is a well-known website for making eCommerce platforms. Can it sell us? Let’s check it out.

What I loved about Shopify

14-day trial

Over 100 responsive templates

1,400 different apps

24/7 support

What Improvements
Shopify Could Make

Transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments

Coding language “liquid” is required for customization

$29/month is a little steep

My verdict: If you want something that can get your store up and be running quickly, this is a good choice.

Final Thoughts

Website builders demolish any obstacles between you and the website of your dreams. In conclusion check out one of these options for the chance to finally get that dream blog or online store up off the ground. You can take these valuable skills and use them to make an even better website down the road.

Thanks as always for reading, and be sure to let me know which website builder you decided to use in the comments!